Famed and acclaimed British actor Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) was an actor to his core, a self-identification which guided him confidently along the path of his life's work. But it also meant that his true personality, underneath his talent for professional deception, was known by only a few. Given unprecedented access to the remnants of Olivier's life (his effects, his letters, and his family) to cut through the miasmas of previous biographies, Terry Coleman has crafted a great and moving opus on the life of an equivocating genius.